Kindred Spirits of the Streets – Leon Anderson Jr. and Norman Dixon Jr.
4th September 2018 · 0 Comments
By Geraldine Wyckoff
Contributing Writer
When folk artist and second line follower Ashton Ramsey was once asked, “Which is your favorite social aid and pleasure club anniversary parade?” he quickly answered: “All of them, because they happen.” That’s just how the club members and second line regulars feel when the parade season revs up. As has become tradition, the Valley of Silent Men, the name of which was derived from the quote, “Out of the valley come those that are chosen,” kicked off the season, which runs through mid-June, on Sunday, August 26, 2018.
“We’re about brotherhood,” proclaims Leon Anderson Jr. the Valley of Silent Men’s president. “It’s fun and I like to bring everybody together,” adds Anderson, who, like his father, the late Leon Anderson Sr., is also a member of the Young Men Olympian Jr. Benevolent Association (YMO).
The YMO annually presents two parades in September on the second and fourth Sundays of the month. The first is the Young Men Olympian’s anniversary parade, which is often referred to as its “mini” or memorial second line, which will take place on September 9, 2018. According to the YMO’s president Norman Dixon Jr., who is also the CEO of the Norman Dixon Sr. Foundation that is named for and dedicated to his late father, this procession is a rather recent addition to traditions of the 134-year-old organization. Dixon explains that to commemorate the YMO’s anniversary, the members of the association continue, as they always have, to attend a church service held in remembrance of those who died the previous year. However in the past, the members would then have dinner with the families. That changed in 1989 when those in the organization felt the need to parade in celebration of the day.
With one band followed by members dressed in the YMO’s traditional outfits, it rolls for just two hours, from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. “It’s really just one organization,” declares Dixon explaining that the unity of its membership is represented in the anniversary parade.
The procession on September 23, which Dixon simply call’s the YMO’s “annual parade,” is always a spectacular affair boasting six colorful divisions and six brass bands that fill the uptown streets for a full four hours. It starts at 1 p.m. at the Young Men Olympian Clubhouse, 2101 S. Liberty, makes a “circle route” and returns to the clubhouse.
It’s not surprising that these two, next generation devotees of the social and pleasure club parading tradition – Leon Anderson Jr. and Norman Dixon Jr. – express themselves similarly when talking about their love of the second lines.
“My favorite part is the gathering of people – of different races and backgrounds – enjoying themselves,” says Dixon, 51, who joined the Young Men Olympian when he was just seven years old. “I just love people personally so it gives me the environment that I like to be in.”
Leon Anderson Sr., who helped co-found the Valley of Silent Men, boasted membership in two organizations, the VOSM and the YMO as does his son, Leon Jr. On the other hand, Norman Dixon Jr., like his father, has devoted himself solely to the Young Men Olympian Jr. Benevolent Association. “My dad said it was unnecessary (to be with another club),” Dixon remembers. “So I just followed his lead. He and Mr. Bucket (YMO parade chairman, the late Alfred “Bucket” Carter) refused to parade with anybody else besides the YMO. They kind of brought me up like that,” says Dixon who also gives high creds to the influence of the late Nathaniel “Nat” Gray, who held the position of grand marshal for the YMO and was a founding member of the VOSM.
Naturally both Dixon and Anderson have been highly influenced by their respective fathers with whom they had the opportunity to share the experience of being a part of these close-knit, community organizations and also have a good time together dancing in the streets.
“My father taught me so much – getting everybody together, looking out for one another and budget-wise,” Leon Jr. says. “We try to keep our dues pretty low because stuff gets expensive but we’re not like that. We try to keep things (like attire) in our budget because our members are friends and family.”
When it comes to being on the streets with the YMO, Dixon lives by one important lesson that was ingrained into him by his notably strong father. He remembers second lining as a little boy and the challenges that went down between groups and individuals to see who could dance the best. “Me and a couple of us got upset because we wanted to be declared the winner,” Dixon Jr. recalls.
“He took me aside and said, ‘Let me tell you. Second lining is for you. You dance for you, no matter what people say around you. First of all you’re dancing because you enjoy what you’re doing.’” From that time until today, Dixon has nixed competitions even when his YMO division, the Untouchables, might be lured by the association’s high-spirited unit, the Furious Five. “We just never entertained it. We put on our show, they put on their show,” Dixon says. “Good for them and good for us.”
From Norman Dixon Jr.’s point of view, the moral of his father’s story is: “The right way to second line is whatever way you make it. That’s the most important thing.”
This article originally published in the September 3, 2018 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
